Modern air conditioning and refrigeration systems provide cooling, ventilation, and humidity control for all or part of a climate controlled area such as a refrigerator, a cooler, a building, and the like. Generally described, a conventional refrigeration cycle includes four basic stages to provide cooling. First, a vapor refrigerant is compressed within one or more compressors at high pressure and high temperature. Second, the compressed vapor is cooled within a condenser by heat exchange with ambient air drawn or blown across a condenser coil by a fan and the like. Third, the liquid refrigerant is passed through an expansion device that reduces both the pressure and the temperature of the liquid refrigerant. The liquid refrigerant is then pumped within the climate controlled area to one or more evaporators. The liquid refrigerant absorbs heat from the surroundings in an evaporator coil as the liquid refrigerant evaporates to a vapor. Finally, the vapor refrigerant returns to the compressor and the cycle repeats. Various alternatives on this basic refrigeration cycle are known and also may be used herein.
Current design trends in refrigeration systems focus on increased efficiency, reduced energy consumption, and other types of environmentally friendly improvements. Similarly, other design goals may focus on reducing the complexity and costs typically found in modern refrigeration systems. There is thus a desire for improved refrigeration systems with respect to efficiency, energy usage, complexity, and costs.